


Devil's Bridge

by valleyd



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Fish, Gen, accidental case, new magic in the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 10:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8887852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valleyd/pseuds/valleyd
Summary: "It's the engineering," said Cassandra. "The math doesn't work out. This bridge literally should not be standing."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ourdarkspirits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/gifts).



"I'm never listening to you again," said Cassandra. "It'll be like a vacation, you said. A picnic by the river, you said. We'll just go in, get the book, and go out again."

"Yeah, well nobody told me the book was a red herring and the real issue was a devil's bridge!"

"Isn't that the kind of thing _you're_ supposed to know?"

"The clippings book was _really_ unclear," said Jake. "How was I supposed to know the subject of the book was the actual target and not the book itself? I mean sure, if I'd known who the architect was and the date of construction, and I'd known to _look it up in the first place_ , I might have been able to make an educated guess, but—"

"Less talky more runny!" said Ezekiel.

"You can't outrun the devil!"

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try," said Ezekiel, and disappeared around the path ahead of them.

Jake looked back at the bridge but as expected he didn't see anything. There might not have been a physical monster on their tail but the devil—well, not the devil, obviously, but _something_ —had a looming presence that he could still feel even if he couldn't see anything. It had been there since the moment he set foot on the bridge, literally one foot.

"Moron," he muttered. "As long as we don't cross the bridge, we should be fine."

"For now," said Cassandra. "Something's been bothering me about this bridge."

"Yeah, I think something's been bothering all of us about this bridge."

"No," she said. "Ever since we first passed by it on our way into town. It was sort of itching at the back of my brain."

"What was?"

"I didn't know until now," said Cassandra, looking into the distance for a moment. Jake recognized when to give her the space to work something out. "This bridge shouldn't be standing."

"And it wasn't, until a few weeks ago," said Jake. "Or at least it was in enough disrepair that they had it blocked to crossing for centuries."

"Not just that," said Cassandra. "I mean the engineering. It doesn't work out. This bridge literally should not be standing."

She sounded more surprised than Jake felt. "That's sort of the point of a devil's bridge," he said. "People used to call all kinds of bridges a devil's bridge when they couldn't figure out how they worked. They assumed that the devil would have had to have helped make it. Sometimes they even carved a devil into one of the stones, like...see, right over there. There's one right there."

"But I'm not people and I'm not wrong," she said. "This bridge really doesn't work. The math doesn't work. It doesn't have enough support."

"So...actual devil's bridge," said Jake thoughtfully. If the bridge couldn't hold itself up, then something else had to be doing it. "But I'm not ready to believe there's an actual devil out there making pacts to build bridges, or that he's suddenly come back to this one."

"Which means—"

"Magic," finished Jake. "Magic is definitely holding this bridge up."

"That's why it stabilized again. It fixed itself when magic came back into the world."

"And I'd actually be pretty happy to let magic continue to hold up the bridge if it weren't for the fact that people trying to cross it are suddenly ending up injured or dead," said Jake. 

"Do you think it's the person who originally made it?"

"I don't know," said Jake. "I guess it could be, technically, if they somehow stuck around for hundreds of years. Or...hibernated, until the magic returned."

"But you don't think so."

"It doesn't quite make sense," he admitted. "There are a lot of variations, depending on the era and the country and the culture, but the general story of the devil's bridge is that the devil helps finish the bridge, and in return he gets the soul of the first person to cross it."

"But we wouldn't be the first people to cross it," said Cassandra. "We wouldn't even be the first people to cross it lately."

"We would be, actually," said Jake. "The bridge might be stable now, but based on everyone we've talked to, nobody has successfully completed a crossing. Maybe they didn't get to claim their sacrifice when the bridge was first completed. Maybe magic was too weak by then."

"And now they're, what, angry and taking a swipe at everyone who tries to cross?" said Cassandra. "That's counterproductive. Wouldn't they _want_ someone to cross so they could claim...whatever it is they're supposed to claim?"

"Crossing the bridge is still clearly the key to it," said Jake, "but maybe it has nothing to do with the original magic. People have believed this is a devil's bridge for hundreds of years—"

"—and all that belief, focused on one object, for all that time—"

"—and they might have created a new magical item," said Jake. "We might have something entirely new on our hands."

"But how do we deal with an _entire bridge_."

"I don't know," said Jake. "We need to get back to the Library and figure it out."

"Uh...Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that thing you said about us being safe as long as we didn't cross the bridge?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, that might be a little more difficult than we thought," said Cassandra, pointing back down the path. When he turned to look he saw Ezekiel running back in their direction, and a flow of water slowly rising up the hill behind him. "Is it supposed to be flowing that way?"

Jake didn't dignify that with a response.

"I'm calling Jenkins," said Cassandra. "Maybe he'll know what to do."

"There's no time," said Jake, watching the rapid approach of Ezekiel, and the equally rapid approach of the water. It didn't stop her from trying to reach Jenkins, but he doubted there would be time to do anything about their dilemma before the flood arrived. "We need to find something to hang on to."

"Water is _definitely_ not supposed to do that," said Ezekiel, doubling over for a moment and catching his breath. "What the hell, mate?"

"Told you you couldn't run," said Jake.

"You said I couldn't run from the devil. _That_ is not the devil."

"Pretty sure we're not going to be seeing any devils today. This is plain, ordinary magic."

"There is _nothing_ plain and ordinary about magic," said Ezekiel. "And I take it back. That water might actually be the devil. There's definitely something serpenty about the way it's following us."

"Yeah, ready to wash us right up over the bridge like an inland tsunami," said Jake. It was almost ironic that the nearest, most stable structure they could grab hold of now was the bridge itself.

"How have people gotten out of this before?" said Cassandra. "You said there are traditions."

"A trick, usually," said Jake. "That's how these legends always go. The devil asks for the soul of the first person to cross the bridge, so they trick a dog or a rabbit into crossing the bridge first."

"And he took the poor dog instead? That's horrible!"

"No, most of them didn't believe animals had souls," said Jake. "The devil just went away empty-handed, by the letter of the agreement."

"So maybe we could do that here," said Cassandra. "Maybe once something actually manages to cross, this will be over."

"Sure, do you see a handy dog around here and something to lure it with?" said Jake. "I didn't think so."

"There must be something," said Ezekiel. "What about bees? Do bees have souls?"

"Bees?" said Jake. " _Bees_?"

"All right, come up with a better idea!"

He did not, in fact, have a better idea, but any idea would be better than bees.

"Fish!" said Cassandra.

"Fish?" said Jake. "You're going to have a fish walk across the bridge?"

"There's got to be some fish in that rising water, right?" said Cassandra. "All we have to do is hold on for long enough for the water to cross the bridge before we do."

It was a terrible idea. They were probably going to die. But they didn't have a better plan, and the water seemed to be speeding up as it approached them, as if anticipating their end and unable to hold itself back. They clung to each other, and to a bridge support, and to an overhanging branch, and to anything that would keep them from crossing. Or drowning.

Jake saw it when it happened, a little school of minnows more drifting past him than swimming, but definitely crossing the bridge on a wave of water that was intended to carry them along with it.

"Just a little bit longer," he said. They were soaked and it was getting harder and harder to hold on. "This better work!"

He waited. Then he waited some more. Nothing.

"So much for plan A," said Ezekiel. "What's plan B?"

"There is no plan B!" said Cassandra. "Maybe it'll be okay. With this much water, we're not going to get dashed on the rocks, we're just going to..."

"Drown?"

"I was going to say float!"

"Maybe it's not the whole bridge," said Jake, wrapping both arms around a support and looking up and down the visible parts of the bridge. "A bridge is pretty big."

"Maybe what's not the whole bridge?" said Ezekiel. "Did I miss something?"

"While you were rabbiting away from us?" growled Jake. "Yes, you missed something!"

"If it's not the whole bridge, then what would it be?" said Cassandra. "The sign? Oh, or maybe the original cornerstone?"

If Jake's fingers hadn't been gripping something so tightly, he would have snapped them. "Cornerstone, no," he said, "Stone, yes! Right there!" The stone with the devil carved into it, was there a more powerful symbol than that?

"They've clearly kept it clean and visible all these years," said Cassandra. "If there were going to be a focal point for all their belief, that would totally be it."

"We need to get that stone," said Jake.

"Yeah, no sweat," said Ezekiel. "I'll just swim through this flood and pick up the magic stone that is now, by the way, _entirely underwater_. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Well, we're all going to be entirely underwater pretty soon so how about you give it a try!" said Jake.

The water was cold enough that they were starting to shiver, even with the surge of adrenaline—or maybe the shaking was especially because of the adrenaline. It was now or never. Nobody was going to be able to hold on indefinitely.

"Okay, if Jake holds on to me, and I hold on to you..." said Cassandra. "That should just about reach, right?

"Yeah, if I hold on to the bridge with my _legs_ ," said Jake, but he didn't disagree. He just scoped out the logistics of it. "Ezekiel, can you do this?"

He looked a bit shaky, but he nodded all the same. "I can do this," he said. "Can you?"

"I guess we'll find out," he said.

A fragile human chain that left _all_ of their heads underwater was the lastest resort of last resorts, but the truth was they'd been in tighter situations than this. And if the water swept them onto the bridge...well, they were probably only going to be injured, not killed. It could be worse. Or at least that's what Jake told himself as he wrapped his legs around a wooden beam and grabbed hold of Cassandra's ankles.

He couldn't see anything. He had no way of knowing what was happening. It was only when he was beginning to feel lightheaded from lack of oxygen and when Cassandra squirmed in his hands to free herself from his grip that he realized the water had begun to recede.

He raised his head above water level and sputtered a few times, wiping his face with one hand, and when he opened his eyes he saw Ezekiel knee deep in water with the devil stone wrapped in his arms and a triumphant smirk on his face.

"Is that it?" said Cassandra. "Is it over?"

"Better be," said Jake, "but let's not stick around and find out. We have research to do."

" _You_ have research to do," said Ezekiel. "I am ready for some hot tub time. My role here is done."

Suddenly a door opened through the entrance to the bridge and the brilliant light of the Library spread over their battered and soaked bodies. "You called?"

"Seriously?" said Jake. " _Now_ you come?"

Cassandra sighed and grabbed his arm. Ezekiel was already on his way through the door. "Come on," she said. "Let's go home."


End file.
